Current Books

Downsized

Quade O'Bric, a former enlisted U.S. Marine football quarterback, is happy with his job as sports editor for a mid-western daily. At home things aren't happy. His wife has moved to the spare bedroom, objecting to his girth and the stench of alcohol when he arrives home from work, late, every night. But readers love him. He knows his job is secure. It is until his nemesis, the sycophantic managing editor, P. Cletus Hammond, informs O'Bric the paper is laying him off. _Downsizing_ Hammond calls it. The ambitious Hammond, who has used a ruse to get rid of O'Bric, is headed for trouble. Maybe it's the demands of his gorgeous wife that lead Hammond to cooperate with criminals working to gain control of the Thom-Com media empire. Thinking himself betrayed by publisher Thorny Thompson, his buddy, O'Bric departs. Should he go right home and tell Glenda, or have a few drinks and face her in the morning? Sneaking home in the wee hours, he finds Glenda waiting. She gives him one month to stop drinking and get a new job, or the marriage is over. She goes to bed. A shaken O'Bric has an immediate attitudinal change. He pledges to himself to improve his relationship with Glenda, find a new job, stop drinking and get into shape. His efforts lead him in ways he never dreamed possible.

Mactan

Mactan is a tiny island in the Philippine archipelago. In 1941 it was also the name of a decrepit inter-island ferry that General Douglas MacArthur commandeered to ferry his wounded on a 4,000 mile voyage from Manila to Sydney through enemy-controlled waters. The historical voyage provides the backdrop for the fictional tale of two men whose early life stories, separated by half a century, follow parallel themes and finally come together in the Philippines.

Shohet

Shohet is the Hebrew word for "ritual slaughterer." It is the code name given by a cabal in Israeli intelligence to an unwitting CIA officer's secret operation in Lebanon. It is one element of a broader conspiracy by the Israelis. The cabal opposes the Labor government/PLO peace talks and return of captured lands. A brash CIA officer, Steven Brady, gets tangled in the conspiratorial web when he asks a Mossad friend to smuggle him into Lebanon via Israel. Brady's goal is to kill the four Hezbollah terrorists who tortured his boss to death while both were hostages. The CIA could foil Brady's mission. They have medically-furloughed him a second year "for psychological reasons" because of an irrational statement he made upon being set free by the terrorists. To keep Brady in the U.S.A., the CIA takes his passport and other documentation.

The Summer Camp

The Summer Camp is told in two parts. Part 1 details the conspiracy which subverts an experimental, long-term program for U.S. born children of Irish immigrants. The program intended, with aid from its alumni, to help bring about the non-violent liberation of Northern Ireland from British rule. Part 2 follows U. S. Secret Service agent Dan Brady, who is the President's choice to head his security detail at the London Economic Summit for the G-7 nations. On the eve of this important duty Brady faces a life or death dilemma as a consequence of his enrollment in the program by his Irish immigrant parents almost 30 years earlier.

The Summer Camp is performed by well-defined characters on an international stage. There are scene shifts from Ireland to a small town in N.J. to New York City to London to Washington D.C. to Northern Ireland. Before resolution there is Interpol, CIA and FBI involvement. It is replete with sub-plots, informers, spies, counter-spies, machinations by both the IRA's and Scotland Yard's hierarchies, killings, historical references and a crucial romance angle.